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Golden Road
A trip around the "Golden Road" (originally a carpet, later dots, for a brief time also used a velvet rope and for another brief time, nothing), where the contestant tries to win three prizes, each of which is more expensive than the previous. The game is noteworthy for offering some of the most expensive prizes on the show. Whenever Golden Road is played, it is always the first pricing game to be played in a given episode. Gameplay The game begins with a grocery item priced under $1, whose price is shown to the contestant. The price of a three-digit prize is then revealed, with the hundreds digit missing. The contestant must choose one of the two digits in the price of the grocery item as the missing digit. If they are correct, the game continues with a four-digit prize, whose missing hundreds digit is one of the digits in the price of the three-digit prize. If they are correct, they move on to select the missing hundreds digit in the price of a five-digit (or occasionally six-digit) prize from the digits in the price of the four-digit prize. An incorrect guess at any point ends the game; however, the contestant keeps any prizes won up to that point. Since the first two (or three for six-digit prizes) digits of the final prize's price will be shown, the prize is usually billed as "worth more than many thousand dollars" at the start of the game. The numbers in the first two prizes generally do not repeat, but it is rumored that it did happen at one point. History Golden Road first premiered on August 19, 1975, All three prizes were won for the first time on November 3,1975. Golden Road's original claim to fame was that it always offered a prize worth more than $10,000, while other games typically offered cars in the $4,000 range (when CBS had a game show earnings cap of $25,000). The prize value has increased steadily since then, as CBS increased (and later eliminated) the earnings cap to the point where they are usually worth more (sometimes much more) than $60,000 on current playings. On November 3, 1975, the very first permanent hour long show, Golden Road got its very first win and during that time, the first digit of the three-digit prize was supposed to be concealed but the sleeve (using buttons to reveal at that time) was prematurely revealed and Bob offered the player the very first prize anyway. However, the second number from the four-digit prize and the third number from the five-digit prize had their numbers concealed. Except for its premiere, when it was played third, Golden Road is always played as the first game of a show. Since the late 1980s until his retirement, host Bob Barker almost always entered from the back of the audience at the beginning of the show when Golden Road was to be played, as the game takes up the entire stage and would have been given away with a Door #2 entrance. One notable exception was on The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular that aired on May 16, 2007: in that special, Bob entered the stage through Door #2 for this episode; to keep his entrance from giving away the game, the dots that make up the "road" were not used; this change was subsequently made on the daytime show with Drew Carey taking over at the start of the 36th season, although it was undone after only two playings. The dots are now set up during the first One Bid. However, Carey continues to enter through Door #2 and has not yet entered from the audience for this game or any other; late in the season, on June 23, 2008, he made only one audience entrance and has not made any since then. On 1994's syndicated The New Price Is Right, Golden Road began with a two-digit prize or a fishbowl of cash. Originally, the price podiums that conceal missing digits were concealed by plastic sleeves that the host would reveal at the pull of a lever (later the push of a button). At times, these would cause the digit to be revealed prematurely, or when pulling the lever/pushing the button, would cause the sleeve to get stuck. By November 11, 1977, these were changed to allow the host to simply remove the sleeve. On Earth Day 2010, Golden Road was renamed Green Road and on Halloween 2010, it was renamed again to Golden Brick Road, as part of a theme to The Wizard of Oz. Pictures Bob's Era Golden Road 1.jpg|Here's the old tacky start position of Golden Road from the first permanent hour long show on November 3, 1975 and featured on Disc 3 of the DVD set. What ugly lettering! Golden Road.JPG|Here's the first font for the numbers. Notice the lever on the price podium that Bob has to turn to reveal the correct digit. The levers would quickly be replaced with buttons later on in the game's run. Golden Road 2.jpg|Back then they offered cars worth more than $10,000 like this one, from that first permanent hour long show. Notice the carpet that was originally the Golden Road. Golden Road 3.jpg|This was what the price was, and the contestant won it (the car, that is). This time, notice the button. 83gr_error.jpg|What's going on here? (The buttons were done away with at this point) Golden Road 4.jpg|It's the same tacky start prop but with a better font. This is from the show's 17th season premiere. Golden Road 5.jpg|By that point, cars and other big prizes were worth more than $20,000. Notice the dots for the Golden Road. Here's the car offered that day, but the contestant didn't make it because... Golden Road 6.jpg|...he blew it on the 2nd prize with this price. Grmotorhome1.jpg|But here's better news, a motorhome was offered that day on November 28, 1994 and that was won. NOTE: In the case of big prizes size-wise, the rainbow was not available since there was no room to see it. Grmotorhome2.jpg|This was the price of the motorhome. Golden Road 7.jpg|Now that's much better; the rainbow start prop with the ultra better looking arrow logo which is still used today. Here's a playing from March 2005. Golden Road 8.jpg|The big prize offered that day was a trailer. Golden Road 9.jpg|This was the price of the trailer; the trailer was won by the contestant that day. Drew's Era Golden Road (Drew) 1.jpg|Here's a playing of Golden Road from The Price is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular. Golden Road (Drew) 2.jpg|This was the car offered that night. Golden Road (Drew) 3.jpg|This is its price, and the car was won. Golden Road (Drew) 4.jpg|On Earth Day 2010, instead of Golden Road, they called it Green Road. Golden Road (Drew) 5.jpg|This by that time was the most expensive prize offered. It's a Tesla Roadster! Golden Road (Drew) 6.jpg|This was the price of it. Sadly, the contestant did not win it. YouTube Videos Golden Road Premiere Golden Road excitement from 1990 Golden Road win for a Jaguar from 1990 Golden Road win from October 6, 1999 Golden Road win from 2001 Golden Road win for a Viper! Great Golden Road Win from April 15, 2002 Golden Road win from 2003 Golden Road win for a Corvette! Last Golden Road win under Bob's Barker's tenure Primetime Golden Road winner Another Primetime Golden Road winner Category:Pricing Games Category:Active Games Category:3-Prize Games Category:Car Games